Page 56 of Definitely Not a Thing

“Hmmm,” I said with an exaggerated sigh, and a finger on my chin like I was actually thinking about it. “You could… go in your house and leave me alone?”

His grin faltered, and then his eyebrows furrowed as he fixed me with a worried gaze. “Hold up… you’reactuallymad?”

I sucked my teeth. “No,” I admitted, chuckling as I fumbled with my keys. “That shitwasannoying though.”

“My bad. Where you coming from this late, looking this good?”

“Drinks with a friend,” I answered, giving him a little up-and-down before I said, “same question for you.”

“Dinner meeting in Blackwood with my agents.”

“Agents… plural?”

“Yeah, kinda. Well – it’s an agency, and they handle their athletes like a group project… kinda. I don’t fully understand the business model, but it’s been working for them, and working for me, so… no complaints.”

I nodded. “Dinner is a good thing though, right?”

“Not getting dropped for misconduct is the good thing.”

I leaned against my –now open – doorframe, crossing my arms. “Misconduct… the big secret you can’t reveal?”

“What?” he chuckled. “I… I wouldn’t call it a big secret.”

“You treat it like one.”

His eyebrows went up. “Do I?”

I nodded.

“Oh. Damn. I just don’t really like talking about it, but I wouldn’t call it a secret – I told you I punched the coach. That shit was on live TV. I gotmemed.”

“Yeah, but you never saidwhy… and the internet speculated, but I mean… it’s the internet.”

He smirked. “And what didthe internetsay?”

“A wild array of things that felt increasingly inaccurate the more I get to know you.”

“Okay… what about the one that your gut told you was might really be it?” he asked, and my eyebrows went up.

Therehadbeen one of those.

I sighed, wetting my lips with my tongue before I answered. “It was about your dad. Something mean. Something I would’ve busted him in his shit for too. Something anybody would’ve.”

Calvin chuckled. “Yeah. Probably why I’m being asked back.”

“So… is it true?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I still don’t know exactly what you heard, and you’re obviously trying not to cross the line into nosy, so you’re not outright saying it, so… I don’t know. But, if the internet is saying I socked ol’ boy for telling me he “would’ve let my ass with my momma to fend for ourselves just like my crackhead daddy did”… then yeah, it’s true.”

I… snapped my mouth shut.

I didn’t even know it was open.

I was…baffled.

“You’re serious?” I asked. “Acoachsaid that to you? Unprompted?”

Calvin squinted. “I wouldn’t sayunprompted,” he chuckled. “I might’ve called him a bitch or something before that, we were going back and forth. But he took it to hell and I caught a ride.”